I’m a full time web administrator for a community college in Pittsburg CA. I also have a little time left over to freelance so check through my gallery for some examples of my work. I love figuring out new ways of doing things and finding the best solution for my clients. I love teaching people what I know so they may learn the things I have learned from others. Have fun reading and don’t forget to comment!
Metal up your type
The purpose of design is to communicate a message and therefore I believe special effects should be used only if there is a reason to use them. This means it’s probably rare that you’ll need to create metal type but as a designer you should know the concept of how to do it even if you’ll only do it once in your career. Above is an image of a banner I did for our college website to congratulate one of our star alumni who played in the Superbowl. To match the emblem for the Superbowl it called for some silver type. In addition...
read moreExcited about a new beta program!
I’ve signed up for beta access but don’t have my code yet. I gotta wait in line Typecast Beta Overview from Typecast on Vimeo.
read moreHow to design a quick mobile website
When designing your websites for multiple platforms it can be a time consuming challenge. Well I’ve been sounding like an add for Google lately but if you want to quickly get a mobile version of your site up and running then google sites has some templates that will get you started while you are taking your time to code the perfect mobile site. Here is one that I made for my parents business fairly quickly. It’s just the basic information you need if your visiting from a smart phone. It’s important to give the option if they...
read more@font warning to watch your weight
I had to repost this link because it’s too good to ignore. I have been posting lately about the use of Google web fonts. They are great because they are free but watch it if you decide to bold or italicize the the font face. Here is a link to Chris Coyiers public service announcement.
read moreGoogle web font plugin for Photoshop by WebINK
A little while back I posted about free web fonts from Google and how I used them in a small project. I found a nifty free little plugin for plugin for Photoshop CS5 from WebINK that allows you design with Google web fonts right inside Photoshop CS5. First create an account with WebINK and download their plugin. Once downloaded you’ll activate it through Window > Extensions > Extensis. You will have to sign into your account. Once loaded you will get a list of all the premium WebINK fonts but you can switch and from the drop down...
read moreMy review of the SF 2011 An Event Apart
My random thoughts on the 2011 San Francisco An Event Apart that took place on December 12 – 14 First I have to say this is one of the best conferences I have ever been to but I am told from other attendees that the other An Event Apart conferences are always good. I guess this one was no exception. The conference was held at the Palace Hotel on Montgomery Street. December is such a lovely time to be in the city. Not only does the Palace Hotel have a gorgeous dining room when you first walk in but it currently has a very large...
read moreHow to make an RSS feed with an easy subscribe link
Getting content spread around! Making an RSS feed for my website seemed like a very simple concept but when I tried to find informaiton on it I ran into a lot of problems. It seemed like everything I tried didn’t work. Welcome to the world of web development! For a while I used google reader and shared static web pages through it using their RSS feed engine and then used feedburner to feed it back into our website. This allowed others to subscribe to our news section and know when we had new press releases. In October of 2011 sometime it...
read moreAmerican Legion and Google web fonts
This week I did a little work for a local post of the American Legion Post 491. I am in the beginning stages with the client but thought appropriate to talk about right before Veterans Day tomorrow. This is the first time I have actually used Google web fonts. The welcome red header on this page and the subhead (H2) is provided by google web fonts. They have a pretty large variety of fonts you can choose from. I wanted to go this route because I wanted to match as close as possible the image header on the top of the page and yet still make...
read moreBeginning Photoshop CS5 hands-on course in Antioch
I will be teaching 6 hours of hands-on training in Adobe Photoshop CS5 at the Antioch Recreation Department. You’ll start with a basic introduction of the interface to feeling comfortable with many of the tools. You’ll fix photos and create your own artwork from scratch. Registration Information...
read moreCollege website gets a makeover
I’m excited to be able to show a sneak peak of my colleges new website due to go live on Tuesday! I originally revamped the site in 2003 and it was good for the time but then the content outgrew itself. This new launch was a year in the making with the first half of the year doing nothing but usability testing with our various audience profiles with several different navigation structures. You can read about the process of the usability study here. The main goal was to have a website that was easy to find information and still provided a...
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